(04-02-2016, 08:51 AM)ReneZ wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.As regards the swallow-tail crenellations on the little castle in the upper right corner of f86r, of course these cannot be taken as proof of anything, but they are an indication among many, all of which need to be taken into account.
Like others here, I have been looking at many thousands of MS images, and there is a very strong tendency in how buildings are drawn, especially castles or city walls. This type is predominantly found in MSs of N.Italy, though some Jewish MSs have potentially similar decorations (but a very different meaning and style).
An example may illustrate this. In the herbal tradition of 'Tractatus de Herbis', the illustration of 'balsamus' usually includes a garden with a wall around it. Early MSs were written and drawn in S. Italy, and look like this:
BL Egerton 747: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
Paris BN Lat. 6823: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
The origin of Morgan MS 873 is not certain, but given as 1350-1375, Italy, possibly Venice, and it looks like this:
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A later copy (15th C) made in N. Italy (Lombardia) looks like this:
BL Sloane 4016: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
The illustration was adapted to a local 'taste'.
Of course, there are examples of travellers seeing and drawing N.Italian castles.
Hello Rene,
just to be sure I understand your point: have you selected those particular examples to point out that only the Northern (and later) Italian manuscript has Swallowtail merlons?
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Is the Voynich castle you are referring to the attached one?
I never looked much into this, but this specific building seems to have a number of interesting features:
* swallowtail merlons;
* rectangular plan, with a courtyard;
* two storeys, with couples and triplets of narrow windows;
* windows both on the outer and inner walls (towards the courtyard);
* a central higher tower with smaller merlons and steep pitch roof;
* two lower towers, with flat roofs and no merlons, at the sides.
The steep pitch roof seems to me particularly suggestive of a Northern origin, but this is just a superficial impression. I will try to look for XV Century illustrations matching the other features as well.